What if the engine of our economy were to stall indefinitely?
The economy is the engine of our country. The creation of wealth emanating from it allows us to finance all the components that are essential for the functioning of the country. The performance of an economy is measured by the success of the sum of its parts, i.e. businesses. In order for businesses to perform and be innovative, we need skilled businessmen at their helm. Their expertise, their ideas and energy are essential for the functioning of our economy. Unfortunately, this evident reality is being lost in our society. Instead of being considered a role model for young people, entrepreneurs find themselves discredited, stigmatized and heckled. For over 20 years, fewer and fewer young people decide to have a go and young talents are scarce. Therefore we believe mentalities must change. Entrepreneurship needs to be reinstated into its proper place in society if we want to guarantee a prosperous future for our economy and for the next generations. The values of entrepreneurship are not innate, they must be discovered. This is why one has to enable a contact between young people and entrepreneurs during education in order to awaken the interest of a few of them and show them that entrepreneurship is an interesting route to follow for the future. Therefore, a reform of the education system must further integrate the culture of entrepreneurship into the curriculum. Regular contact with entrepreneurs and businesses to complement courses is an interesting road to follow and an idea we would like to pursue further. A greater visibility for entrepreneurial spirit in economic sections is another one. These efforts are essential to groom future entrepreneurs and to put them under the best conditions to be successful. A problem often encountered by young entrepreneurs is access to and availability of finance. Their projects are based on an innovative idea and carry a certain amount of risk. That risk is often penalised and leads to a refusal of credit. Existing financing aid is often difficult to access and does not respond to the needs of entrepreneurs. Their needs are not necessarily only of a financial nature; good advice and the support of a consultant are just as valuable. Existing channels of financing must be complemented by initiatives from entrepreneurs towards entrepreneurs, and why not consider a tax leading in that direction? An entrepreneur who launched a good idea and received funding faces administrative burden. Let us find shorter and simpler procedures in order to allow for a more rapid business creation. Even when all the conditions are fulfilled, the problem of lack of talents remains. This is why we must look beyond our borders to attract foreign talents to our country. We must refocus our policy on economic migration in order to open up for talents from outside the EU. Through a change in mentalities we could (again) become a target country for the best talents. Sound entrepreneurship culture must be accompanied by a culture that accepts failure. In every process of creation and innovation, failure is a possibility, even normality. We must learn to accept failure and decriminalize it. Every entrepreneur who has encountered failure deserves a second chance. The projects that succeed at the first attempt are quite rare. Let us follow the American and Scandinavian examples and change mentalities. Entrepreneurial spirit must not be limited to businesses. On the contrary, the search for efficiency and innovation is a positive contribution to a large number of projects. This spirit would help refocus our research and innovation policy. Public research must be enshrined in a coherent policy framework and a healthy proportion of its output must be dedicated to projects with concrete economic returns. The notion of entrepreneurship must also be pushed inside existing businesses, in ministries and in the public sector at large. A few good examples exist, but they remain too rare. The same goes for the pursuit of excellence. If our country wants to create centres of excellence, niches of competence, it needs a complete, coherent and targeted approach. We will not achieve excellence in every area. A focus on a few key sectors of our country would allow us to develop activities that will put us at the forefront. Without an entrepreneurial spirit and culture, we will fail. In order to promote the role of entrepreneurship, every stakeholder’s support is essential. Therefore, trade unions must become the allies of entrepreneurs in order to make the change in mentalities a joint objective. In order to get there, trade unions must also question themselves; redefine their objectives and their role in the economy. If they share the objective to guarantee a good quality of life for the next generations, progress will be achieved and society will become more dynamic. Entrepreneurship will return to the heart of society if the economy returns to the heart of the political debate. It will be difficult to achieve that objective when part of the economy is not represented in the political world. At a time when tripartite coordination seems to be running out of steam, it would be time to consider other alternatives. The idea to integrate a business representation and, at equal proportions, a trade union representation in Parliament merits closer examination. The change in mindset required to achieve these objectives is substantial. The questioning of past achievements and preconceived opinions is however essential in order to make society progress and guarantee a better future for the next generations.